About Lambert Strether

Lambert Strether has been blogging, managing online communities, and doing system administration 24/7 since 2003, in Drupal and WordPress. Besides political economy and the political scene, he blogs about rhetoric, software engineering, permaculture, history, literature, local politics, international travel, food, and fixing stuff around the house. The nom de plume “Lambert Strether” comes from Henry James’s The Ambassadors: “Live all you can. It’s a mistake not to.” You can follow him on Twitter at @lambertstrether. http://www.correntewire.com

Tom Allen- LOL. “Tootsie” was her name when I adopted her. I liked it and dedcided to keep it. Tootsie’s footsies are special, hence the name, I assume. Her front paws have “thumbs”, and she is very adept at picking up “toys”- straws, twist ties, etc.

Friends;
Well, it’s happening at last, super drug resistant TB in India, the perfect venue for an epidemic. The Nature squib suggests mismanagement of treatment as a primary driver for drug resistance selection. Well of course it is! On any reasonably well run big construction job I’ve been on, the Superintendant EXPECTS multiple things to go wrong, and plans accordingly. Medicine is no different.
The money quote comes at the end. When trying to explain why there isn’t a Big Pharma development race going on, one source mantions that “..there were not enough potential profits..” to drive corporate decisions to produce. I guess that’s why I’m still a closet Technocrat at heart; forward looking decision making usually provides the best outcomes for everyone. After all, aren’t most of the people here good and fed up with narrow horizon thinking, (Me! Me! Me!) and short termerism, (let the next bunch worry about it!)
Rereading the above and reflecting the thought strikes me; since it doesn’t look like Obama is going to get Primaried, then it’s time to #Occupy Charlotte during the convention. Then, while The Whole World Is Watching, those who care about the world can use their Martyrdoms, and make no mistake there, the response will be extreme, to show the rest of the world the real lay of the land. By the way, where are our modern protest singers when we need them?
Thanks for leting me rant. It’s quite therapeutic!

Where are all those *re-enactors* pining to Occupy 1776? Well, here’s their big break. Is this not the real American Dream: *We the People Quash the Power* for real, in our lifetimes in 2012, just like We the People did in 1776? Yes, Occupy Charlotte – Occupy Freedom – Occupy Real – Occupy America – Occupy Democracy for the 99%.

Jack London – “The Iron Heel” – is about Identity Politics writ LARGE: The global .01% and their 1% Agency: THIS the Power to be Vanquished by We the People in 2012.

WE THE PEOPLE 1776/2012: IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

Who will be OUR President, our George Washington, when the world turns in Charlotte 2012? the Patriots William K. Black and Yves Smith/Susan Webber? Let’s start making the list for creating the Clean Slate 2012. And this much we must make clear: *No Grifters Need Apply*. And of course, no *Royalty* of any kind, AGAIN!

Dear LBR;
Sometimes when I’m starting to get depressed about the whole thing, I realize that NC and the affiliated sites are our modern iteration of the Committees of Correspondence. The people are uneasy and angry, but unfocused. As examples like the California Epic campaign in the 30’s show, the shaping of public perception can drive the process. That’s why I try in my small way to point out the “Facts” for what they are to those I come in more than casual contact with each day. I get a lot of abuse in return, but occasionally, that questionmark look shows up in someones eyes. Then it’s all worthwhile.
As for #Occupy Charlotte, sometimes the people need to see that they are not crazy nor alone in doubting the Official Version of Reality. Symbolism has its uses.
I’m not Fearless Freep, consarn it, but I’m learning a little each day to live with the fear and loathing.

On the other hand: Lots of neocon authors who have previously worked for the likes of George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, and McCain etc write for FP. Also FP belongs to the Washington Post and a previous editor was Moses Naím, a Venezulean who once was Venezuelas Minister of Trade (before Chávez came to power) and was an executive director of the World Bank.
So FP probably has a neo-con, pro-Isreal leaning which makes this article doubly suspicious.

Probably what is false about the article is not that the Israelis recruited and trained terrorists to operate in Iran but that the US wasn’t in collusion. Thus when an Iranian nuclear scientist is assassinated the US can say, oh no, we would never do a thing like that.

This has nothing to do with the Iranian scientist, but with a possible – and increasingly likely – attach on Iran, which will, after all appearances, be sold as an Israeli attack to the public (even though the U.S. and U.K give full support and have full knowledge and do approve) to which Iran responds and since the U.S. has pledged to defend Israel no matter what – a retaliatory attack on Israel will drag in the U.S. and probably NATO as well – which will be assured by the appropriate false flag attacks.
It’s more a sales strategy for the public than anything of substance – the fact that this story has been reported around the world in mainstream-media also hints to that.

One really wonders how far from the tipping point the American public is in realizing Israel is NOT an ally of the United States.

Israel is a protofascist, apartheid police-state and the actions of its leaders and US supporters have done nothing but decrease the security and chances for peace for the average American citizen.

Israel has shown time and time again that it will renege on any agreement entered into with the US, it will spy and steal secrets from the US, it will take financial and military support from the US without offering anything in return and its leaders regularly ignore/ridicule the US.

It’s time to sever our ties with this pariah state as it is no longer in the interest of the vast majority of the citizens of the United States.

In the January 16, 2004 edition of Stars and Stripes, the late Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Commander of U.S. 7th fleet wrote the following;

“On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked our proud naval ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government. Israeli reconnaissance aircraft closely studied the Liberty during an eight-hour period prior to the attack, one flying within 200 feet of the ship. Weather reports confirm the day was clear and unlimited visibility.
The Liberty was a clearly marked American ship, in international waters, flying an American flag and carrying large U.S. Navy hull letters and numbers on its bow. U.S. military rescue aircraft were recalled-not once, but twice-through direct intervention by the Johnson administration.
Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara’s cancellation of the Navy’s attempt to rescue the Liberty, which I confirmed from the commanders of the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career. To add insult to injury, Congress, to this day, has failed to hold formal hearings on Israel’s attack on this American ship.”

edition.presstv.ir/iphone/detail.aspx?id=220979 on iphone. yes this will be the right moment for obama to lead the american people to victory. oil will be at $200 and dollars will be needed so the fed can do qe3 with all the swap lines with others central banks around the world. with all the hardware of the 5th and 7th fleets near iran its now look really close. ron paul will then dissapear from the screen and ahmedinajad will happily replace him 24/24. the next public enemy #1 will then detonate a nuclear device bought from north korea and the ww3 will officially begin.

“Israel is a protofascist, apartheid police-state and the actions of its leaders and US supporters have done nothing but decrease the security and chances for peace for the average American citizen.”

Oh, I see. Unlike the United States of America. Look, I’ll take the mote out of my brother’s eye, but not until I take the beam out of my own.

Or did the president not just sign a bill legalizing indefinite internment? Do we not assassinate our own citizens? Do we not put up walls on our borders and shoot people who cross them? Guess I closed my eyes to all that, amirite?

Yes, America is also a proto-fascist police state and – minus the overt apartheid of its brethren – instigates many of the ills the world currently suffers from.

What’s your point?

That I can’t point out that our own corrupt, protofasicst government’s subservient attitude towards its corrupt, protofascist, apartheid “ally” doesn’t do the people who reside within the Amerian police-state a lick of good and actually needlessly complicates our relations with the vast majority of the planet’s denizens?

Is that really what you’d like to say?

Or is it that even though AIPAC is seemingly the most powerful lobby in the United States besides the defense industry, that we should try and pretend that support for Israel among the American political class is NOT an anomaly, that this tiny country somehow continuously finds the support of 100% – minus Ron Paul – of our elected leaders?

What other “lobby” or ally enjoys such universal support from our politicians?

None, beside the defense industry.

You can find politicians against guns, tobacco, pharma, finance etc etc, but you will find nary a word written/spoken questioning the state of Israel.

Is that what you’d like to say?

So, just becasue we – the US – are no beacon on the hill doesn’t mean that I as a US citizen can’t ALSO comment on the posting of a story about the duplicitous nature of Israel’s intelligence agencies.

I mean, I truly understand your “hasbara-esque” use of moral equivalency to paint Israel in a better light – i.e., the US is bad, too – but again, that’s neither here nor there as I was commenting on the Mossad story as posted above.

AS IF We the People at NC didn’t know that we have a criminal, fascist “government” — our government hi-jacked by foreign powers through the AGENCY of their puppets in our three branches of government of, by, for the People. Isn’t that what We the People are railing against day and night at NC?

They will take the heat for their partners in the U.S. So the focus may be shifted to Israeli involvement and away from American involement.

And unlike some patsies, Isreal is fairly well protected from getting caught. Its protected by the U.S.

p.s. I also wonder if Isreal is being used in a similar fashion w/ regard to 9/11 investigations. We have people like Richard Clarke now “revealing” that up to 50 people in the C.I.A. knew the hijackers were coming in the country and speculating the CIA may have been trying to infiltrate al qaeda here in the U.S.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEQKbYo5EC8 This, lays the cover story for Isreali involvement because the U.S. is thought to use foreign services like the Mossad for operations on U.S. soil, so that’s the logical next step to Clarke’s allegations. We also know the stories about the dancing Isrealis and the Isreali art students; these people could very well have been responsible for 9/11, or patsies, or both.

Dear neo-realist;
I think you are underestimating the arrogance and hubris of the American elites here. “The prople will do what we tell them” seems to be the meme. We now have a fully functional police state apparatus in the United States. “Neutralizing” opposition to the next big war could well be its ‘shake down cruise’ if you will.

“”Growth cannot be taken for granted. The link between demographics and growth is not automatic. A demographic dividend could morph into a demographic disaster, if people are not healthy, educated, and trained.

Growth, however, is not an end in itself. Policymakers should not think of growth separately from inclusion. Increased income disparities should not be viewed as the price to pay for higher growth. A development response that aims to promote growth first and then deal with human misery later is not sustainable.””

Siwwy wibbewwals. Hoisted by their own Magic Negroes. Anyone paying attention for the last ten years would know that the whole purpose behind the Faith Based Initiatives thing (which Obama is also behind) was to buy off the clergy Saudi Arabia style. And driving through the hood you don’t have to guess to know who runs anything worth running. The gigantic new temples with brand new and growing publicly funded charter schools attached to them show anyone interested who the government is smiling upon. They are now given considerably more power and influence over our lives in the form of being access points to government services and are not democratically elected or publicly held accountable for even basic stuff like, wait for it, discrimination based on religion. And some of these churches won’t even talk with you about a business relationship unless you are a member. Classic patronage stuff. So OWS did not form an alliance with the black community. It formed an alliance with a grotesquely wealthy entrepreneur and assorted lords and masters of their own personal fiefdoms, all of whom are, by trade, extremely charismatic.

Re: The link to Jay Rosen’s Press Think about Izvestia’s “Truth Vigilantes” piece: Krugman had a blog post yesterday (for reason’s I don’t understand but for which I’m thankful, the RSS links to his posts don’t take me through the paywall) about Republican lying that he was explicitly told not to use the “L” word. http://bit.ly/wpKfh2

This chart from the FT piece “America’s incredible shrinking labor” suggests that the US will achieve NPG shortly if it has not already. Given the magnitude of past undocumented (and uncounted) migration, it would be surprising if US population is not already shrinking rapidly.

Not likely. Not enough of them. And former Catholics have the lowest reproduction rates in the world. No, we need to take an evolutionary biology perspective and start a major scientific effort to find the lemming gene and understand why it is being expressed now. Before population falls off a cliff. But for now, while it is mild, we can continue to call NPG progressive.

my population is shrinking. I used to be 1.4 and now I’m only 1.1. This may be a recession though.

@Kangaroo — what was the kangaroo’s side of the story?

@ OWS movie by Citizens United — It will never be as good as “Don Juan de Marco” a work of absolute genius, which you can see on Youtube if you want. I’d rather just watch that again than endure the OWS video nonsense.

@India — I have a bad feeling about this one. I used to live for years with a woman born in India. She said they were all crazy over there. I think almost everybody is, everywhere, but in certain culturally specific ways. Have ridden my India exposure down from 24 to 15 or so. Not looking for a return to the top any time soon.

@America isn’t a corporation P. Krugman — Is that a fact or an opinion? Just kidding.

@1% behaving badly — can’t even bring myself to read about it anymore. It’s like going to church and hearing a hellfire sermon. I’d rather just waste time doing nothing. Kind of like what I’m doing, right now. haha

So, they care so much about what S&P did, but don’t care AT ALL about why they did it, which they clearly stated in their report, which clearly singles out the eurozone’s exclusive obsession with austerity as the primary concern.

No, I don’t mean borrowing money in order to get inside a public entity (vs. a private entity) in order to loot it. It’s all too easy to do that and set things up so that you get paid whether that public entity (in contrast to the failed private entity for a private equity guy) fails or not. We already have too many of those. They are called ‘politicans.’

The Northeast Rust Belt was developed in the 1700s and 1800s because of its abundant surface and ground water supplies. I suspect that the same factors will trigger its rebirth over the next century as many currently low-cost areas are found to be unable to sustain their populations and industries.

A Cat pounced on a Cock, and cast about for some good excuse for making a meal off him, for Cats don’t as a rule eat Cocks, and she knew she ought not to. At last she said, “You make a great nuisance of yourself at night by crowing and keeping people awake: so I am going to make an end of you.” But the Cock defended himself by saying that he crowed in order that men might wake up and set about the day’s work in good time, and that they really couldn’t very well do without him. “That may be,” said the Cat, “but whether they can or not, I’m not going without my dinner”; and she killed and ate him.

I think it’s important to understand what Ron Paul symbolizes in the political discussion and how needed that is, and also to realize that just because he puts forth certain political positions in speeches doesn’t mean he would be able to make those things happen if he got elected. Presidents end up reacting to the world of power relations they inherit, and the existing political and policy structures they inherit, with very little room (if any) for enacting campaign policy talk.

I googled to see who was reporting this critical news and it was tumble weeds. As the L.A. Times article reports, the Pentagon wants to deploy the troops quietly and the American media is doing its job by not reporting it.

I guess the decider has decided and we just have to zip our lips or sink ships, or something.

Dear Man;
Well, loose lips and all that, but, just a couple of ‘dirty bombs’ along the southern littoral of the Persian Gulf and the largest petrochemical agglomeration in the world will be permenantly off line. (Hint: Above mentioned industrial complex is just fifty or a hundred miles from Iran, which has both the short range missles, and the fissile material to pull it off.) I think it was Frank Herbert who wrote, “The ability to destroy something gives you control over it.”
If all this pro war propaganda is real, we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Thanx for the water article! We need to worry more about “peak water” than “peak oil”, IMO.

Re Krugman’s riff on running gov’t like a businees, i have been on that rant for some time – government most certainly should NOT be run like a business …

But for those who think it should, I have often thought it curious that they keep wanting to cut taxes – isn’t that the “revenue” side of a business, and aren’t businesses always supposed to keep trying to “raise revenue”?

Back in 2003, when the political blogosphere exploded, there wasn’t a lot of concern for decorous or deferential language. There was also the idea that “we are the media.” We didn’t want to become David Broder; we wanted to get rid him, and Pravda, too, There was little affiliation with established Washington institutions like think tanks or foundations, and while most of the blogs (at least on the Democratic side, where I came up) were quite partisan, there was the sense that we could try to tell the truth without worrying about how it would affect this or that candidate. More, truth-telling was not only the right thing to do, but the pragmatic thing; the only thing that would save us. That’s old school, especially the truth-telling part. In other words, back in the day, there were a lot more bloggers like Yves, who IMNSHO is “old school.”